In the air: C5’s licence could suit Desmond sale

Why might the timing of Richard Desmond’s decision to offer Channel 5 for sale for up to £700 million be significant?

One reason is that the Big Brother broadcaster is about to win a new 10-year licence from regulator Ofcom, offering a lot of comfort to any new would-be owner.

While a fresh licence starting in January 2015 might seem like a formality, both Channel 5 and ITV have been embroiled in negotiations for over a year as the regulator demands small changes to their programming commitments.

Ofcom says the process will “conclude shortly”. That could ease the way for any C5 sale, although there are few signs of would-be buyers yet. If there were a change of C5 owner, Ofcom would still conduct a “fit and proper” test and the regulator could theoretically review the new licence.

* Facebook, which reports annual results tonight, has been checking with opinion-formers how the social networking giant could communicate better with the media — by asking them to complete an online questionnaire from Survey Monkey. The online polling firm is run by David Goldberg, husband of Sheryl Sandberg, pictured, Facebook’s chief operating officer — a nice bit of family synergy.

* Two months ago, this column reported “rumours of friction” between Trinity Mirror boss Simon Fox and Sue Douglas, the ex-Sunday Express editor brought in to revamp the Sunday People website with the promise of “news without the boring bits” seven days a week. Now Fox has shut People.co.uk because it “hasn’t attracted the audience” he hoped for. Douglas is leaving the company.